This editorial discusses the idea that parental involvement and communication has no benefit or influence on student achievement and success. According to research and study results, when involvement does seem to matter, the consequences for children’s achievement are more often negative than positive. When involvement did benefit children academically, it depended on which behavior parents were engaging in, which academic outcome was examined, the grade level of the child, the racial and ethnic background of the family and its socioeconomic standing. The article summarizes that no matter the race, socioeconomic status, or student academic level, involvement is just not necessary for success in the ways that society promotes: in learning activities at home, homework help, attending PTA meetings, and checking in with teachers. The key to success, according to Harris and Robinson, is promoting the value and necessity of schooling and education, something that is often forgotten in the midst of test scores, grades, and desire for success.
This article is not very surprising. It is understandable that a parent's social involvement with the school has no or negative impact on the child. What specific importance does being a part of the PTA have to do with your child and his/her's success? Not very much except teaching the importance of being involved. This article highlights the importance of a community and families to be teaching the value of school and an academic career. With false support a child may seem to value school, but actually may misinterpret the meaning. A parent does not need to be actively involved in a child's academic career and work, they just need to consciously promote the importance of it for the child to do well. This too goes for the community around the child. He or she may have all the resources in the world, but if the value and purpose of those resources are unknown, why should they care to utilize them?
This article analyzes and reports the findings from a research done at Harvard University. Students attending a summer credit-recovery program were divided into three groups. The first group received a weekly message from the teaching with positive information about the child's performance, the second group received a weekly message that gave information about how the child could improve, and the third group's parents received no messages at all. Students who received messages were 6.5% more likely to receive credit for the course. This change is believed to be related to the less likelihood of a student to drop out if a parent is informed about the student's work. The improvement messages, which were even more effective than the positive information messages, changed the likelihood of receiving course credit to 8.8%. The teacher and parent communication messages did not increase the frequency with which parents communicated with their children about school and coursework, but instead affected the content of the conversations they did have. Students reported that their parents spoke to them more frequently about their work and what they needed to improve. The study shows that parent and teacher communication can ultimately positively hinder a student's academic success if approached in the correct manner.
This research shows the positive effects of communication with parents and a student's family. Making parents aware of their students work allows them to take part in their child's education, even if its just through a simple conversation at dinner. It allows the parent to encourage and explain the importance of improving and doing well, or better than the time before. It gives an opportunity to promote the value and uses of education, rather than leaving it up to the child to figure it out themselves, or not figure it out at all and give up. This analysis article is very important in showing the need for parents and teachers to have some kind of simple communication about the student/child to keep them motivated and willing to participate and work hard in school.
Porterfield, K., & Carnes, M. (2008). Why School Communication Matters: Strategies From PR Professionals. Lanham, Md. : Arlington, Va.: R&L Education.
This book describes why it is necessary to accurately report facts and happenings in a public school and how it is achievable. The authors claim that it is a fundamental leadership skill, a way to create a bridge instead of a buffer with the community, the key to gaining community support and funding, crucial to a leader's job security and overall success of a school system, and can benefit students in multiple ways. With multiple stories being fed to the public and local community, it is important to report the truth effectively and honestly. Many aspects of education are arbitrary, subject to opinion, and falsely reported. If a school does not have a strong way to communicate what is going on, the system ultimately fails because of the lack of support and trust invested in them. When media thrives on "bad news" stories and headlines that grab attention and gain views, reporters will use the most catchy information, true or false, to get the numbers. Communication and interaction with the community is necessary to clear the air and regain the support of a community who has fallen victim to popular news and poorly reported information.
This book is extremely important to the success of a school system. I think accuracy and truth in media reports are important to having a community's support and making a community more aware about what goes on in educational reforms and more importantly the school in their community. Good communication between the school and parents and between the school district and the community creates a climate of trust and respect in which teachers can teach and students can learn. Without trust and respect, why would any one want to actively participate in the school system? If a community continuously hears false headlines that go along with popular news, the community and the school system will fall out of sync and will no longer be able to help each other work towards success. Keeping a community informed about the definition of reform, what is being reformed, what test results are and what exactly they mean, and how the school is changing or will be changed because of it seem to be some of the most important questions that community members need to be aware of. They need to understand why it is important for children to succeed in school and how that is attainable, but how it is attainable in their community, not just in the government's generalized plan that does not usually work.
Ray, J. A., & Shelton, D. (2004). E-pals: Connecting with Families through Technology. YC Young Children, 59(3), 30–32.
This scholarly article is about connecting families through technology. In a first grade classroom, a new family involvement method was put to the test. The article discussed the successful electronic pen pal program in the first grade classroom that started as a a project for a social studies unit on communication. The project quickly transformed into an interactive home-school communication method as well as a learning tool. The first benefit of this project was the increased involvement with families, including parents who lived apart from their children. They found that working parents or extended family members who do not live locally, could still be involved through e-mails. There also was an overall increase in the students understanding of cultural diversity. By sharing recipes through e-mail and learning about each other and each other's families, the students became interested in learning about each other and the differences between other's families and their own. This method of communicating ultimately continued in the classroom. The teacher used e-mail to interacting with Spanish pen-pals so the students could further their understanding of diversity. They were motivated to read and write as well as improve their technological and communicative skills. Downsides to the project included computer issues and parent's lack of motivation to participate. The teacher compensated by continuing to send traditional weekly newsletters home with the students as well as offering them opportunities to use the school supported computers. Overall, this small classroom experiment showed the new opportunities of technology and communication in a classroom. It gives students, parents, and teachers to have detailed and frequent communication.
This article is extremely helpful when determining the purpose of communication between a teacher and the community involved with the classroom. It shows first hand how a classroom and their guardians responded to e-mail newsletters and what kind of participation is necessary for it to be successful. This classroom experiment shows that it is fairly easy to communicate through frequent e-mail. I believe it to be quite a bit more reliable than paper newsletters. When using e-mail, especially in today's technological age, it is almost assured that it will reach its target audience. With a paper newsletter or flyer, it is never sure to reach the parents or guardians. This scholarly article is important when trying to understand the impact of technology and thoughtful communication in the classroom. The frequent interaction between the children's at home influences and the children's teacher allows the guardian to be more involved and more aware of what is going on in their child's education.
Ravitch, D. (2014). Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools (pages 10-41).
Chapters 2 through 4 of Diane Ravitch's book discuss the context of corporate reform, who the corporate reformers are, and the language of corporate reform. These three chapters create the basis of what is important to know regarding education and reformation. Ravitch delves into the truth behind what a reformer is and what the reform is. She brings up the fact that most of America doesn't even know what the different reform programs and groups are doing. The reform groups target the wrong areas of US education, that they believe need to be changed, and convince citizens that it is the right thing to do. Listeners are gullible and so terribly misinformed that often programs that have no benefit are supported. She explains that the market-based reform trend is ruining the public education system's chance of succeeding and receiving the proper attention that it needs to continue pushing forward. When it comes down to it, Ravitch believes that most do not know "the facts" about public education system and what it needs to succeed.
I chose to use these chapters to further my knowledge about the public education reform and it completely shocked me. The public is misinformed and misguided into believing that many market-based programs upheld by the government and private sectors are necessary to fix the education system in the United States. It is shocking to know that simple misinformation and lack of knowledge can lead a system down a destructive path, especially when it is completely unnecessary. Ravitch claims that the public education is not broken as severely as the public is made to think and that with the government's help, the system will continue to lose its faculty and passionate employees and systems that have proven to work. If the public was more informed about the truth of the matter, where would we be? These chapters made me extremely interested in how educational and academic data is reported and how it is interpreted by the government, communities, and other school systems. Media plays a crucial part in presenting the truth. It is the bridge between what systems need and the people who can help fix it. If the bridge is constantly connecting the two, why are the facts always twisted and churned? If the truth and hard factual information is not reported to the people directly involved and impacted by the reform, how will it ever benefit or help them?
Overall Reaction to Your Research
Overall, my research showed that communication with the community that is directly involved with a school can only benefit the community, students, and teachers if used in the correct manner. It is extremely important for a school system to have positive public relations in media on a large scale, but it is even more important for a school system to have the right type of communication with parents/guardians and the supporting community that keeps in touch with the system. Oftentimes, a school systems community gets lost in rumor and misunderstands new strategic concepts, but if the system has a positive and very up-to-date way of interacting and communicating with them, many of these nuances of miscommunication can be avoided. When a community is exposed to false information and rumor, they are subject to misunderstanding the workings of their child's education. This can all be avoided with thoughtful and intuitive communication between parents and the school system. This also ultimately allows for the children to have more positive community activity and influence in their school, instead of hearing negative rumors, or even worse, nothing at all about their school.
How does this research help us identify or refine a strategy to improve schools in Rhode Island?
This research identifies an issue in many school systems and in education reform as a whole. Media relations and public relations have a large impact on a child's education. Like mentioned above, it is very important for a community to be well informed about the education styles and workings of the system. When a community is more aware about the facts of the education system of their area, they can properly offer advice and concerns based off of true knowledge instead of off of rumor and misunderstandings. The more involved and knowledgeable a parent/guardian is about the happenings in their child's school, the more in touch they are as a whole. This ultimately betters the relationship between parent, teacher, and student. As a whole, they can be more actively involved in each other's work and success by having more frequent communication.
Author: Samantha Kaiser
Harris, Angel L. and Keith Robinson (12 April 2014). Parental Involvement Is Overrated. Retrieved November 13, 2014, from
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/12/parental-involvement-is-overrated.
This editorial discusses the idea that parental involvement and communication has no benefit or influence on student achievement and success. According to research and study results, when involvement does seem to matter, the consequences for children’s achievement are more often negative than positive. When involvement did benefit children academically, it depended on which behavior parents were engaging in, which academic outcome was examined, the grade level of the child, the racial and ethnic background of the family and its socioeconomic standing. The article summarizes that no matter the race, socioeconomic status, or student academic level, involvement is just not necessary for success in the ways that society promotes: in learning activities at home, homework help, attending PTA meetings, and checking in with teachers. The key to success, according to Harris and Robinson, is promoting the value and necessity of schooling and education, something that is often forgotten in the midst of test scores, grades, and desire for success.
This article is not very surprising. It is understandable that a parent's social involvement with the school has no or negative impact on the child. What specific importance does being a part of the PTA have to do with your child and his/her's success? Not very much except teaching the importance of being involved. This article highlights the importance of a community and families to be teaching the value of school and an academic career. With false support a child may seem to value school, but actually may misinterpret the meaning. A parent does not need to be actively involved in a child's academic career and work, they just need to consciously promote the importance of it for the child to do well. This too goes for the community around the child. He or she may have all the resources in the world, but if the value and purpose of those resources are unknown, why should they care to utilize them?
Penn, Joanna (12 November 2014). Impact of teacher-to-parent communication: Research on the “underutilized potential.” Retrieved from
http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/education/teacher-to-parent-communication-and-its-positive-effects-research-on-the-underutilized-potential.
This article analyzes and reports the findings from a research done at Harvard University. Students attending a summer credit-recovery program were divided into three groups. The first group received a weekly message from the teaching with positive information about the child's performance, the second group received a weekly message that gave information about how the child could improve, and the third group's parents received no messages at all. Students who received messages were 6.5% more likely to receive credit for the course. This change is believed to be related to the less likelihood of a student to drop out if a parent is informed about the student's work. The improvement messages, which were even more effective than the positive information messages, changed the likelihood of receiving course credit to 8.8%. The teacher and parent communication messages did not increase the frequency with which parents communicated with their children about school and coursework, but instead affected the content of the conversations they did have. Students reported that their parents spoke to them more frequently about their work and what they needed to improve. The study shows that parent and teacher communication can ultimately positively hinder a student's academic success if approached in the correct manner.
This research shows the positive effects of communication with parents and a student's family. Making parents aware of their students work allows them to take part in their child's education, even if its just through a simple conversation at dinner. It allows the parent to encourage and explain the importance of improving and doing well, or better than the time before. It gives an opportunity to promote the value and uses of education, rather than leaving it up to the child to figure it out themselves, or not figure it out at all and give up. This analysis article is very important in showing the need for parents and teachers to have some kind of simple communication about the student/child to keep them motivated and willing to participate and work hard in school.
Porterfield, K., & Carnes, M. (2008). Why School Communication Matters: Strategies From PR Professionals. Lanham, Md. : Arlington, Va.: R&L Education.
This book describes why it is necessary to accurately report facts and happenings in a public school and how it is achievable. The authors claim that it is a fundamental leadership skill, a way to create a bridge instead of a buffer with the community, the key to gaining community support and funding, crucial to a leader's job security and overall success of a school system, and can benefit students in multiple ways. With multiple stories being fed to the public and local community, it is important to report the truth effectively and honestly. Many aspects of education are arbitrary, subject to opinion, and falsely reported. If a school does not have a strong way to communicate what is going on, the system ultimately fails because of the lack of support and trust invested in them. When media thrives on "bad news" stories and headlines that grab attention and gain views, reporters will use the most catchy information, true or false, to get the numbers. Communication and interaction with the community is necessary to clear the air and regain the support of a community who has fallen victim to popular news and poorly reported information.
This book is extremely important to the success of a school system. I think accuracy and truth in media reports are important to having a community's support and making a community more aware about what goes on in educational reforms and more importantly the school in their community. Good communication between the school and parents and between the school district and the community creates a climate of trust and respect in which teachers can teach and students can learn. Without trust and respect, why would any one want to actively participate in the school system? If a community continuously hears false headlines that go along with popular news, the community and the school system will fall out of sync and will no longer be able to help each other work towards success. Keeping a community informed about the definition of reform, what is being reformed, what test results are and what exactly they mean, and how the school is changing or will be changed because of it seem to be some of the most important questions that community members need to be aware of. They need to understand why it is important for children to succeed in school and how that is attainable, but how it is attainable in their community, not just in the government's generalized plan that does not usually work.
Ray, J. A., & Shelton, D. (2004). E-pals: Connecting with Families through Technology. YC Young Children, 59(3), 30–32.
This scholarly article is about connecting families through technology. In a first grade classroom, a new family involvement method was put to the test. The article discussed the successful electronic pen pal program in the first grade classroom that started as a a project for a social studies unit on communication. The project quickly transformed into an interactive home-school communication method as well as a learning tool. The first benefit of this project was the increased involvement with families, including parents who lived apart from their children. They found that working parents or extended family members who do not live locally, could still be involved through e-mails. There also was an overall increase in the students understanding of cultural diversity. By sharing recipes through e-mail and learning about each other and each other's families, the students became interested in learning about each other and the differences between other's families and their own. This method of communicating ultimately continued in the classroom. The teacher used e-mail to interacting with Spanish pen-pals so the students could further their understanding of diversity. They were motivated to read and write as well as improve their technological and communicative skills. Downsides to the project included computer issues and parent's lack of motivation to participate. The teacher compensated by continuing to send traditional weekly newsletters home with the students as well as offering them opportunities to use the school supported computers. Overall, this small classroom experiment showed the new opportunities of technology and communication in a classroom. It gives students, parents, and teachers to have detailed and frequent communication.
This article is extremely helpful when determining the purpose of communication between a teacher and the community involved with the classroom. It shows first hand how a classroom and their guardians responded to e-mail newsletters and what kind of participation is necessary for it to be successful. This classroom experiment shows that it is fairly easy to communicate through frequent e-mail. I believe it to be quite a bit more reliable than paper newsletters. When using e-mail, especially in today's technological age, it is almost assured that it will reach its target audience. With a paper newsletter or flyer, it is never sure to reach the parents or guardians. This scholarly article is important when trying to understand the impact of technology and thoughtful communication in the classroom. The frequent interaction between the children's at home influences and the children's teacher allows the guardian to be more involved and more aware of what is going on in their child's education.
Ravitch, D. (2014). Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools (pages 10-41).
Chapters 2 through 4 of Diane Ravitch's book discuss the context of corporate reform, who the corporate reformers are, and the language of corporate reform. These three chapters create the basis of what is important to know regarding education and reformation. Ravitch delves into the truth behind what a reformer is and what the reform is. She brings up the fact that most of America doesn't even know what the different reform programs and groups are doing. The reform groups target the wrong areas of US education, that they believe need to be changed, and convince citizens that it is the right thing to do. Listeners are gullible and so terribly misinformed that often programs that have no benefit are supported. She explains that the market-based reform trend is ruining the public education system's chance of succeeding and receiving the proper attention that it needs to continue pushing forward. When it comes down to it, Ravitch believes that most do not know "the facts" about public education system and what it needs to succeed.
I chose to use these chapters to further my knowledge about the public education reform and it completely shocked me. The public is misinformed and misguided into believing that many market-based programs upheld by the government and private sectors are necessary to fix the education system in the United States. It is shocking to know that simple misinformation and lack of knowledge can lead a system down a destructive path, especially when it is completely unnecessary. Ravitch claims that the public education is not broken as severely as the public is made to think and that with the government's help, the system will continue to lose its faculty and passionate employees and systems that have proven to work. If the public was more informed about the truth of the matter, where would we be? These chapters made me extremely interested in how educational and academic data is reported and how it is interpreted by the government, communities, and other school systems. Media plays a crucial part in presenting the truth. It is the bridge between what systems need and the people who can help fix it. If the bridge is constantly connecting the two, why are the facts always twisted and churned? If the truth and hard factual information is not reported to the people directly involved and impacted by the reform, how will it ever benefit or help them?
Overall Reaction to Your Research
Overall, my research showed that communication with the community that is directly involved with a school can only benefit the community, students, and teachers if used in the correct manner. It is extremely important for a school system to have positive public relations in media on a large scale, but it is even more important for a school system to have the right type of communication with parents/guardians and the supporting community that keeps in touch with the system. Oftentimes, a school systems community gets lost in rumor and misunderstands new strategic concepts, but if the system has a positive and very up-to-date way of interacting and communicating with them, many of these nuances of miscommunication can be avoided. When a community is exposed to false information and rumor, they are subject to misunderstanding the workings of their child's education. This can all be avoided with thoughtful and intuitive communication between parents and the school system. This also ultimately allows for the children to have more positive community activity and influence in their school, instead of hearing negative rumors, or even worse, nothing at all about their school.How does this research help us identify or refine a strategy to improve schools in Rhode Island?
This research identifies an issue in many school systems and in education reform as a whole. Media relations and public relations have a large impact on a child's education. Like mentioned above, it is very important for a community to be well informed about the education styles and workings of the system. When a community is more aware about the facts of the education system of their area, they can properly offer advice and concerns based off of true knowledge instead of off of rumor and misunderstandings. The more involved and knowledgeable a parent/guardian is about the happenings in their child's school, the more in touch they are as a whole. This ultimately betters the relationship between parent, teacher, and student. As a whole, they can be more actively involved in each other's work and success by having more frequent communication.